Business units work together to bring about successful PeopleSoft upgrade

Following the recent PeopleSoft upgrades, Queen's University had the opportunity to turn on some new functionality that helps employees access and change some of their personal data in real time.

All this couldn’t come about overnight, however. The road to these successful upgrades started back in 2014 when planning started to bring software up-to-date and install bug fixes. The main drivers for the most recent upgrades were to ensure tax updates were incorporated to run accurate payroll beyond 2015, upgrade functionality and ensure ongoing vendor support. From a Human Resources perspective, the upgrade meant employees gained the ability to access and update their own information quickly and efficiently. From a business perspective, the upgrade will save the university upwards of $60,000 in paper reduction. The campus upgrade resulted in bringing the software up to date, applying delivered bug fixes and allowing Queen’s to eliminate a number of prior customizations. A collaborative effort by business units such as Human Resources, the Office of the University Registrar, Finance and Information Technology Services, staff worked diligently to ensure the project stayed on-time, on-scope and under-budget.

In preparation for the most recent functionality upgrades enabled by the 9.2 upgrade, a lot of behind the scenes work took place. In January 2015, Fit Gap Analyses were conducted followed by scoping and design sessions as well as software development and testing over the summer months. Training and user acceptance testing began in early September. In a dry run for the go-live, the teams worked together over the September 18-21 weekend to ensure that the updates could be performed. And then, with everything in place, Queen’s staff worked through the October 23-27 weekend in order to bring the system live for Campus, HR and Payroll users.

Some of the biggest concerns at the start of this project were how employees adapt and accept the new system and how to communicate these changes on a campus-wide scale.

“Our team went to great lengths to make employees aware of the new functionality and procedures from internal communications with individual departments, to emails, to posting advertisements, articles in Gazette, poster placement around campus and online training materials,” says Tom Carter, PeopleSoft Project Manager. “Overall, bringing MyHR online was a fairly smooth transition. The partnerships between ITS, Human Resources, Finance and the Office of the University Registrar were a collaborative effort from all parties and key to bringing about a successful implementation.”

The business partnership with IBM was particularly valuable as the addition of their staff brought technical resources and business analysts and they were available on campus and remotely for the dry run and go-live.

For helpful how-to guides and frequently asked questions about the recent upgrade, please visit the Human Resources website. If you have any issues with your NetID, please contact the IT Support Centre.